v^r 




iWasisac|)U0etts. 

1893. 



MASSACHUSETTS, 



MASSACHUSETTS: 



A TYPICAL AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. 



BY 



WILLIAM i:lliot griffis, d.d. 










C.\ M lU^I DC. !■: : 

JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

ETuiDfvsitu ^Jrrss. 

1893. 



Tn Exchi 

;',!i '01 






LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Plymouth Rock 9 

The Old Siatk House 15 

Faxeuil Hall 17 

Old North Church 19 

Old Souiir Church 21 

W'ashlxgton' Elm 23 

Blnklr Hill ^Io.m.ment 29 

The Home of Loncfellow 33 

The BHrrni'LACE of Whittter 35 

State House ^-j 




MASSACHUSETTS: 

A TYPICAL AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. 



^ I ^\\\l cradle of Massaclnisctts liistory was discovered 
within the memory of livino- men. Under the 
carved oaken beams of the Manor House at Scrooby, in 
the northern part of Notting-liamsliiro, England, about 
1604, the Pilgrim Church was born. Here, on the 
banks of the Idle, gathered farmers, artisans, and la- 
borers from the three counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, 
and York. The bond of a common religious faith held 
them together. John Rol^inson, tlicir spiritual teacher. 
was nobly assisted by William Prewster, the Elder of 
the congregation, and by William Pradford, then a 
vouno- man, but with [jreat business and administrative 
abilities. 



Massachusetts 



Forced to leave a monarchy, they took refuge in a 
republic, where, from the previous visit of Brewster, 
they knew there was " Hberty for all men." The same 
tyranny which drove out so many good men from Eng- 
land had already nearly ruined the woollen and other 
textile manufacturers of Norfolk, many of whom brought 
their capital and skill to Leyden, In this rich city lived 
several hundred English people, including contractors, 
manufacturers, soldiers serving in the Dutch army, and 
students in the University. Thither, in 1610, came 
Robinson and his conorresration, thus makino- the second 
English church in the city. During the Twelve Years' 
Truce these prospective citizens of Massachusetts re- 
mained in the municipality and the federal republic, 
learning much of government, politics, business, and 
handicraft, as their own and the Leyden records show. 
Of the Pilgrim company, William Bradford, Isaac Aller- 
ton, Degory Priest, and many others became citizens of 
the municipality, and thus gained experience in the 
working of republican institutions. Before their eyes 
they saw in full operation, in a union of sovereign states 
bound in federal union by a written constitution, and 
under the red,. white, and blue flag, common public free 
schools, toleration of religion, the registration of deeds, 



A Typical American Commonwealth. 



morto-af^cs and wills, the written ballot, freedom of the 
press, democratic government in church affairs; and, 
among the Anabaptists, who were numerous around 
them, complete separation of Church and State. In a 
word, these men, destined to be the founders of the 
greatest republic in the world, had here every facility, 
in a free republic, to reinforce practically their ideas 
and inheritance of English freedom. 

Yet because their sons and daughters were marrying 
into native families, their young men enlisting in the 
army led by Maurice, and their people likely to be 
swallowed up in the Dutch nationality, withal desirous 
of propagating their tenets of independency, these Eng- 
lish Independents resolved to cross the Atlantic to the 
New World. In their enterprise they were joined by 
Miles Standish, one of the captains in the English 
contingent of the Dutch army. 

They made their journey in boats by canal to Delfs- 
haven, embarked on the "Speedwell," and crossed to 
Southampton, where they were joined by John Alden and 
other colonists, and the "Speedwell" by the '' Mayflower." 
After many vicissitudes, including kind treatment by the 
people of Plvmouth, they made their wintry voyage of 
nine weeks across the Atlantic. The " Mayflower " had 



8 Massaclntsctts , 



a tonnage less than that of a good Erie Canal boat. One 
hundred and one persons landed on the shortest day of 
the year, December 21, 1620; and the first or common 
house was begun on Christmas Day, Soon a group of 
seven rough dwellings sheltered the company. 

Without giving the name of Scrooby, Austerfield, or 
Bawtry to any of their settlements, they called the place 
Plymouth, and formed the " Old Colony." Other emi- 
grants from Leyden and England joined them; but at 
the end of ten years they had not increased beyond the 
number of three hundred persons, or about the total 
number of Robinson's Leyden congregation at its 
highest. The oldest street in New Eno-land is Levden 
Street in Plymouth, Mass. The most famous boulder 
in the world is Plymouth Rock, — a bit of stone as 
geographically erratic and as influentially enduring as 
the Pilgrim Fathers themselves. Their simple but 
heroic life has been glorified in poetry, painting, fiction, 
and oratory. 

One of the first museums and memorial edifices in 
the American Union enshrines the Pilgrim relics in Ply- 
mouth. As early as 1769 Forefathers' Day (December 
21) was inaugurated by a local celebration which is now 
perpetuated in a dozen New England societies and 



■1 Typical American Commonwcaltli. 



nearly fifty Congregational and other elubs throughout 
the I'nited States. hi 1S22 Pilgrim Hall was dedi- 
cated; in 1S67, the imposing granite canopy placed over 
Plymouth Rock; and in 18S9, the completion of the 
National Piljirim Monument was celebrated. On this oe- 




PLVMOU IH K( )eK. 



casion the oration was most appropriately given by the 
Hon. W. C. P^-eckenridge, of Kentucky, of Scotch-Iri^h 
and Presbyterian ancestry, and the poem by John Boyle 
O'Reilly, a Roman Catholic Irish-American. Besides 
the bronze tablet in memory of John Robinson in Ley- 
den, it is proposed to rear at Delfshaven a memorial to 



I o Massac Ii iisetts 



the Pilgrim fathers and mothers, and in recognition of 
the hospitalit}' of the tolerant Dutch republic. 

Small and poor as the Pilgrim colony and republic 
was, and much greater and richer as became the later 
Puritan immigration and Bay Colony, the spirit of the 
former is the more typically American. The people of 
the United States may be outliving Puritan ideals, but 
they love more and more the Pilgrim spirit and practice. 
Our national tradition and procedure are Pilgrim rather 
than Puritan, in favor of toleration and the separation 
of Church and State, less rigor of form with a sweeter 
and purer Christianity. The Pilgrims were reinforced 
Englishmen, tempered and mellowed in a tolerant re- 
public. The}^ were men of three lands. Both colonies 
in Massachusetts were as mustard seed and leaven. But 
while the Puritan, or Bay, colonists represent phenomenal 
growth and extensiveness, the Pilgrims stand for the leav- 
ening, or intensive, principle in the making of America. 

At Plymouth was the first successful settlement of a 
colony, consisting mostly of Englishmen, on the shores of 
the Indian country, — meaning "great hill,"— or of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name " Massa- 
chusetts " came probably from a single elevation overlook- 
ing Boston Harbor (Blue Hill, near Milton); and part of 



A Typical ^inicrican CoDinwnweaUh. 1 1 



it still lives in that of Wac]iu>ctt Mountain. Possibly, 
centuries before, the Norsemen had settled and begun 
civilization at Xorunibega; and it may be some of the 
names on the niap are of Norsc-Indian origin. W hat- 
ever may be the ultimate issue of the question of the 
Northmen's occupation of the Ciiarles River region, or 
about Taunton, Massachusetts glories in the possession 
of the Dighton Rock, with its Runic inscriptions; while 
Professor Eben Norton Ilorsford, scholar, inventor, and 
philanthropist, has reared, on a rocky height near 
Waltham, a lofty tower of pebble and bowlder, with 
detailed inscri[)tion upon a polished granite shaft. On 
Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston, Leif Kricson stands 
in bronze eflRgy on a red stone pedestal, carved in 
likeness of a dragon-prowed \-iking's craft. Among the 
settlements that failed mav be noticed those of Bar- 
tholomew (iosnold (at Cutt\-hunk) and Martin Prynne. 
How long the " Skraalings," or red men, inhabited 
the land we know not. Somewhat over a thousand 
Indians, of more or less mixed blood, still dwell on 
Massachusetts soil, mostlv on the coast or islands, and 
a venerable missionarv societv still makes annual grants 
of money for their religious nurture. The memory of 
the Indians is eternally embalmed in the many sonorous 



1 2 Massac/ntsetts . 



names of rivers, mountains, and natural landmarks in 
the Commonwealth. 

The " Bay Colony " was begun at Salem in 1628, under 
John Endicott, and reinforced and enlarged by John 
Winthrop, who came over to Charlestown in 1629 with 
a charter. In these two later emio-rations were about 
thirteen hundred people. The Pilgrims never had any 
patent or charter, but under the royal document com- 
mitted to Winthrop the Puritan government was formed, 
lasting sixty years. Not being satisfied with the water 
and other natural conditions at Charlestown, many of 
the people crossed the Charles River to Shawm ut, which 
means "near the neck." Then " Bostonia Condita" 
could be written ; for Boston, named later after the town 
founded by St. Botolph in England, was settled and its 
career begun. Until the coming of the Rev. John 
Cotton, — of whom Bishop Phillips Brooks was a de- 
scendant in the eighth generation, — the new settlement 
at Shawmut, near the farm of Blackstone, now Boston 
Common, was dubbed " Lost Town," because not at first 
flourishing. When, a decade later. King Charles and 
the Parliament were at odds, probably more colonists 
returned to Eneland than emio^rated to Massachusetts 
until the Revolutionary War. 



A Typical Aiitcricaji Commojiwealth. 



The first settlers were toilers on land rather tlian on 
sea. .\s usual in the course of history, the poorest land 
was taken llrst, because it needed less preparatory work 
of axe, mattock, and fire for the reduction and renKj\al 
of the timber, and the extraction ot stumps from the soil. 
The ]andsca[)e of Massachusetts has been carved and 
laid chielly by the glacier, and the handw riting of God 
on the rocks is everywhere evident. Four divisions, both 
oeological and tyj)ograi)hical, are noted. Cape Cod and 
Plymouth County are made of rearranged glacial drift. 
From the shore region towards Connecticut River, the 
rocks belong to the Laurentian, Cambrian, and Carbo- 
niferous ages. In the middle of the three counties — 
Franklin, Ffampshire, and Hampden — lies a great basin 
abounding in the footprints of colossal reptiles. Slabs 
of these triassic rocks, containing nine thousand tracks, 
are stored up, like some great terra-cotta librarv recov- 
ered from a buried world, in the museum of Amherst 
College, l^rst discovered on a Sunday in the last cen- 
tury by a pious worshipper on his way home from the 
meeting-house, they were supposed to be the work of 
" Noah's raven." Westward from the Connecticut Ri\er 
basin, in Berkshire County, is a series of highlv meta- 
mori)hosed rock, probably as old as the Silurian period. 



14 Massaclmsetts 



From the first, however, the resources of the State 
in economical geology, except a very little silver, lead, 
coal, eniery, and iron, have been exhibited mainl}^ in 
Ouincy granite, red sandstone, and marble. Indeed, it 
may be said that the mines of Massachusetts are in the 
sea, or above the soil in the character and habits of her 
citizens. True type of the brain-nourishing food of the 
people, the cod deserves praise as the one fish which 
can be cooked in all ways, and eaten at all seasons of 
the year. Indeed, physicians have publicly declared that 
baked codfish and potatoes form the ideal food. To 
this, however, supplementing the colonial clams and corn, 
the native housekeeper out of her New England kitchen 
will add brown bread, baked beans, fishballs, doughnuts, 
pumpkin pies, all cooked and served in approved Boston 
style. It is certain that the first order of brains has been 
long nourished on this standard diet. Rejecting Christ- 
mas and Lent, the Pilgrims and Puritans struck a bal- 
ance by instituting Thanksgiving and Fast days. 

From the first, the people began cheerfully to replen- 
ish and subdue the earth. Many of the early Puritans 
were skilled fishermen or dealers in the produce of the 
sea before they crossed the Atlantic ; and the prospective 
wealth to be obtained from the ocean was one of the 



A Typical Americaji CommonweaUIi. 



15 



strong inducements, in addition to tlie urgency of con- 
science, which led them to this i)art of the world. Im-oui 
the first history of tlie Commoiiwealtli to this day, there 
has been more wealth drawn out of the water than from 
the land. For food, oil, and 
fertilizers, the cod, whale, 
and tinnv spoil of all sorts 
have been caught by billions. 
The Indians within her bor- 
ders, who first taught the 
settlers how to tread out a 
mess of eels and to cook 
succotash, w^ere of Algonquin 
stock ; but before the Rev- 
olution the Iroquois had 
named the governor of Mas- 
sachusetts Kinshon, " the 
Fish." Shortly after this a 
eolden cod was hunii in 




THE OLD STATE HOUSE. 



the State House, and under the golden dome on IxMcon 
Hill it still hangs, as the true symbol of the wealth of 
the Bay State. 

From July 4, 1631, when John W'intlirop launched 
" The Blessing of the Bay," Massachusetts men have 



1 6 AlassachiLsetts : 



been good shipbuilders. Their vessels became in less 
tlian a century the finest in the world. A permanent 
school of naval science and experience was founded in 
the fisheries and carrying trade, from which some of 
America's greatest naval heroes have been Qrraduated. 
Among the descendants of early settlers may be named 
Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, John 
A. Winslow, and a host of others. 

In the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Civil wars no 
State has a naval record like that of the Bay State. In 
the War of Independence, over one-half of the American 
ships and sailors were from Salem, Boston, New Bed- 
ford, and other ports of Massachusetts, They first car- 
ried the American flag around the world, and then into 
every sea, becoming the common carriers of the world. 
The "Constitution," or "Old Ironsides," commanded by 
Captain Isaac Hull, and the "Essex," on which fought 
Porter and the boy Farragut, were both built on Massa- 
chusetts Bay, and manned largely by her sailors. Be- 
sides nourishing many heroes in our navy, who were 
born in her borders, the Bay State claims the honor of 
adding largely to astronomy, navigation, ship-hygiene, 
and allied sciences, in the persons of her sons, — Benja- 
min Thompson (Count Rumford), S. F. B. Morse, of 



.1 Typical Atncricaii CoDDHonivcallk. 



17 




telegraphic fame, Xathanitl Uowditeh, iJcnjaniin Pierce, 
Benjaniin Franklin, lamer of lightning and discoverer 
of the Gulf Stream, and her adopted son, Louis Agassiz. 
|ohn Adanis, who in 1819 modestly disclaimed being 
"the father of the .Vmerican nav\-,"' was nevertheless 
intiuential in forming it, under 
Admiral Hopkins, in 1776. 
Adams Q:ave names to the first 
five vessels, one of which, the 
" Andrea Doria," at St. Eusta- 
tius, in the West Indies, No- 
veniber 16, 1776, received from 
the Dutch governor, Joh.annes 
de Graeff, the first salute ever 
fired in honor of the .\merican 
flag. The "amphibious"' regi- 
ment of Marblehead, led b\- the 
doughty General John Glover, 

manned the boats -which ferried over Washington's army 
after the battle of Long Island and before the victory of 
Trenton. 

When we inquire into the ancestral origin of the 
people who began our Commonwealth, we find that fivc- 
eio-hths of them came from those eastern and southern 







FANEUIL HALL. 



1 8 Massachusetts: 



counties of England which border on the North Sea or 
English Channel, — that region which maybe called the 
centre of the commerce of Europe, where many ocean 
waters meet, and at which the mouths of many great 
rivers from the interior of Europe are found. Here the 
Celtic, Norse, and Teutonic nations mingled. The rail- 
way station next to Scrooby, named Ranskill (Ravenskelf, 
"mound of the ravens"), is but typical of the settlements 
of the Norsemen in England, and the rich infusion of 
Norse blood in those parts of England, whence came 
the Plymouth men. Their Norse blood explains that 
love of the water and of ships which is so natural to 
the sons of Massachusetts. 

In few^ portions of the Union has the study of ances- 
try been so diligently carried on ; and in the number of 
historical, antiquarian, and historic-genealogical societies 
Massachusetts leads all the States. In the volumes of 
local history published, commemorative statues, soldiers' 
monuments, tablets marking historic spots, memorials 
of distinguished men and women of local, state, or 
national fame, " Old South " and other courses of lec- 
tures on American history, the raising of flags on public 
schools, — th.e example of the Bay State deserves imita- 
tion everywhere. Though her population is no longer of 



A Typical .hm'ricau Co}n)non7<.'callJi. 



19 



preponderantly Englisli or nati\e American stock, and 
is already more than half of Canadian-lM-ench, Nova 
Scotian, Irish, or other stocks, the effoi't is constant to 
educate all in the principles of American self-restraint 
and freedom, and in their responsibil- 
ities as citizens. 

With their traits cf enterprise and 
daring- inherited from their Teutonic 
and Norse ancestors, the colonists 
joined love of discipline, a passion for 
law. Thev wanted good government, 
and for the sake of it they were will- 
ing to sacrifice personal convenience 
or desires. In the New World they 
laid out their towns on the old Frisian 
model, with a " comnion," or com.mon 
land. Civilization advanced bv social 
settlements, not by isolated cabins, 
by towns with churches, schools, 
music, culture. A system of political order was evolved 
in which there was the nicest balance between individual 
freedom and combination. 

The military spirit from the first was dominant. The 
fighting qualities of their ancestors, the old Saxons and 




OLD XORTH CHURCH. 



20 Massachusetts 



Frisians, were manifest. Miles Standish and hib mail- 
clad men returned the rattlesnake skin stuffed with 
bullets and powder, and began war just as soon as tlie 
Indians wanted it, — possibly sooner. The Ancient 
and Honorable Artillery of Boston was organized in 
1637. Among the first imports to the colony from the 
West Indies, about 1640, was cotton for the wadding 
of corselets to render harmless Indian arrows. The 
war with the Pequots in 1637, and King Philip's War, 
1 645-1 646, which reduced the colony to half of its 
strength in blood and treasure, issued in victory for the 
white man. 

For two generations longer the settlers were harried 
by French and Indians from the North. Against the 
northern waves of invasion from Canada there was no 
breakwater; the frontier was all exposed. But on the 
west there was, standing like an impregnable mountain 
wall, the Confederacy of the Iroquois, the Six Nations, 
who, through the genius of Arendt Van Curler, — after 
wdiom the New York Indians named the Governor, and 
those of Canada Queen Victoria, — had been won, first 
to the Dutch, and then to the English side, as against 
the French. Yet, despite the constant alarms from the 
savage foe and the danger of invasion from Canada, 



A Typical American Comtnonivealih. 



21 



ihc indoniilablc military s}jirit of the people enabled 
them to strike the trouble at its source, and to dry up 
the poisonous si)rinL;s of disaster. Hence during a 
period of nearly seventy years their thoughts were occu- 
pied with the reduction of Canada. 
After several unfortunate expedi- 
tions, the plain farmers of New 
England, led by merchants and 
lawyers, through a hai)py combina- 
tion of circumstances aiding their 
own valor and genius, captured 
the great fortress of Louisburg. 
One of the first statues raised in 
the United States to the honor 
of Columbus stands in Louisburg 
Square, in l:)0>ton. 

To sustain the immense financial 
burden thus im[X)sed upon them by 
their naval and military enterprise, 

the people of Massachusetts were obliged to coin money. 
1 65 2- 1 682, and in 1690 to emit bills of credit. Being 
practically an independent republic, Massachusetts jnit 
no royal ef^gv on those circular bits of metal, which are 
usually assumed to be the symbols of state sovereignty. 




OLD SOUTH CHURCH. 



2 2 Massachusetts: 



Taking the pine-tree as the typical natural feature on 
her landscape, symbolical of vigor, steadfastness, and 
abilit}' to stand alone, she stamped the effigy of this 
majestic tree upon her shillings. Understanding polit- 
ical economy, she made coins less in value than those of 
the same name in England, so -that they would be kept 
at home. Sixpenny and threepenny pieces were also 
minted. In country places to this day the Pennsylva- 
nian in Massachusetts is amused to find that six shillings 
are yet believed to make a dollar. The pine-tree, after- 
wards, with the rattlesnake, appeared on the Massachu- 
setts colonial flag, until both these symbols were eclipsed 
by the standard bearing her coat of arms as a sovereign 
State, and by the Stars and Stripes of the Union, — "the 
one flag she holds more sacred than her own." The 
great seal of state {sigilhuji rcipublicac jMassacJntscttcnsis) 
bears the figure of a tufted and moccasined Indian 
holding bow and arrow, standing beside a star, and under 
a mailed hand grasping a sword. The martial legend 
is from the Latin of that flower of English chivalry, Sir 
Philip Sidney, who fell, in the Dutch War of Inde- 
pendence, at Zutphcn, — "By the sword she seeks calm 
repose under liberty." 

When Charles II. came upon the throne, he made 



A Typical Aiucricau Coiuiuoinvcalth. 



23 



inquisition into the way thinp;s hnd Ix'en goinpj on in 
the Bay Province; and tliinkini;- that these people across 
the sea were lakini; and gaining too many hberties, he 
revoked tlic charter, and 
sent Sir Kdniund An- 
dres over to be his 
deputy and the royal 
go ve r n o r. A n d ros m ad e 
a fool of himself in a 
Qfreat manv wavs, and 
the people rose up in 
due time and put him 
in pri>on. When the 
Stadholder of the Dutch 
republic became King 
William III. of Eng- 
land, he granted a new 
and more liberal char- 
ter, which remained the 
supreme law of the col- 
ony until there was 

formed th.e Provincial Congress of 1774. Under this 
charter the "Old Colony" was, in 1692, swallowed up, and 
becam.e one with the " Bay Colony." Massachusetts had 
then a population of forty-seven thousand. 




WASIIIXGTOX EI.M. 



24 Alassachiiscfis 



Among the famous men of this period, from 1620-1692, 
were, in the Plymouth or Old Colony, Governors Carver 
and Bradford, the two Winslows, Prence, Hinckley; in 
the Bay Colony, Endicott, Winthrop, Dudley, Haynes, 
Vane, Bellingham, Leverett, Bradstreet, Joseph Dudley, 
Andros, and Danforth. Other names famous in theology, 
literature, enterprise, or social life, are those of John Alden, 
Anne Hutchinson, Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather, 
John Cotton, Thomas Shepard, John Eliot, Henry Dun- 
ster, William Pynchon, and others. 

Some idea of the intellectual foundation upon which 
the reputation of the State rests may be gained from the 
fact that to Massachusetts came a large majority of the 
one hundred Puritan clergymen who had been in the 
Church of England, and were university-bred men. Har- 
vard University grew out of a public school founded at 
Newton in 1636, and settled at Cambridge in 1639. For 
over a quarter of a millennium " Fair Harvard " has sent 
out her graduates to do the world's work in every line of 
human achievement. 

Under Queen Anne and the house of Brunswick there 
was comparative prosperity, and the taking up of new 
land and settling of new towns went on apace. The cen- 
tre of the State was well dotted with farms and villages, 



A Typical .imcricau Co])U)ionzvcallh. 



25 



and as early as 1-35 the Berkshire Hills were crossed, and 
the site of r*itt>liel(l, uiuler the name of " IJoston Planta- 
tion," laid out. Indeed, not onl\- is the name of l)oston 
repeated twenty -five times on the map of the United 
States, l)ut in no^th\\e^tern America " P)oston" was.amontr 
the aborigines, the synon\'m for white man. 

Despite their ability to take care of themselves, the 
Massachusetts men were all loyal to the old countrv, and 
to her kings and th.e king's fax'orites, notwithstanding 
that so many of these proved themseKes such foolish peo- 
ple. t{ence in the naming of the Massachusetts towns 
we find a remarkably large number of the names of Eng- 
lish kings, their palaces or places of residence, and of the 
king's servants or favorites ; and one can read in the 
names of these towns the story of English politics. The 
limit was reached and the line was drawn in 1775, when, 
a town having been named after General Cjage, an.d called 
Gageborough, the people petitioned to have the name 
changed, which was done. .After that no shadow of ro}-- 
alty in any form was cast upon the nomenclature of the 
Gommonwealth. In 1776 the first of the manv towns in 
the United States called after the great Virginian received 
its name, Moimt \\'a>hington, from the Eegislature, as 
being the highest in Massachusetts, as well as in Berk- 
shire countv. 



2 6 Massac h itsetis . 



During the pt'iiod of the royal governors tlie people 
pushed westward!}' with axe and rifle, clearing the forests, 
improving wild beasts off the face of the earth, and niak- 
ino- the wilderness bloom with roads, towns, churches, aPid 
hearth-fires. On the sea they caught fish, chased whales, 
built up a profitable trade, sold Friday food to the southern 
Europeans, and traded oi^ for Old World comforts and 
luxuries the best ships then afloat. They imported West 
India molasses, and made New England rum; traded 
in and kept black slaves; maintained the public schools; 
drank cider at home, and strong liquors at the meetings 
of parson and deacons, — and did a host of things good 
and bad, like other saints and sinners. The powder-horns 
carved in the frontier-camp with geographical, historical, 
and more or less poetical annotations; the " melancholy 
sampler" made by the won^.en at home; the chief litera- 
ture theological, "the air black with sermons;" religious 
life keen, stern ; social life serious; politics always exciting; 
newspapers few, and books not so many as well read, — 
show the strong, simple, intense life of the people, and the 
character of Massachusetts in formation. With the spin- 
ning-wheel at home fitted to work flax or wool, the busy 
women made clothing, as well as cooked and farmed. In 
the field or on the sea, the men became veterans ready 



A Typical ^[))icrican Conniwnwcalth. 



27 



for Revolutionary rcL;iments or Continental privateers. 
" In all labor there is profit"" was the niolto of these free- 
nien, always prepared for peace or war. 

\\\ the goxernorsliip we find Phipps, Stou^hton, Uella- 
niont, Dudley. Tailer, Shiite, Dumnier, lUiriiett, Uelcher, 
Phips, Pownal, Ilutchinson, l^ernard, and Gage. In the- 
ology, Jonathan Pxlwards eclipsed all lesser lights with 
his profound thought, brilliant writings, and continental 
fame. 

The P^nglish Rexolution of 168S, by which Puritanism 
practically triumphed, and by which nuicli that the Com- 
monwealth had stri\'en for was attained, and bv which 
also toleration was first secured to Independents and 
other free-churchmen in I^ngland. was always a sore 
thing to royalty and aristocracy in that countrv; and a 
policy was inaugurated which, whatever the i)retexts alleged 
or the matters of detail professed, was intended to undo 
the work cjf the Revolution. The House of Prunswick, 
led by King George III., was particularly active in this 
abominable polic\-, and one of its measures was the taxa- 
tion of the colonies without their consent ; and these colo- 
nies, following out the precedents of the re})ublic in which 
so many of the Pilgrims and Puritans had been trained, 
and of their English ancestors, at once resisted. Massa- 



28 Massacluisctts 



chusetts and Virginia led in protest and revolt. Agitation 
was begun, and public opinion was roused. As in New 
York, the people had always voted the 3Tarly salary of 
the governor, and refused anything like permanent sup- 
port ; and during the seventy-five years' quarrel over the 
subject they had been pretty well educated in matters of 
political finance. 

In 1776 the Sons of Liberty first began to gather 
under the old Liberty Tree, which stood on the corner 
of what is now Washington and Boylston Streets in Bos- 
ton. \\\ October, 1770, Boston, which had only twelve 
thousand inhabitants, was garrisoned by one thousand 
red-coats, camped on the Common. On March 5, 1770. 
twelve "lobster backs," led by Captain Preston, fired on 
the crowd that was jeering at them, and blood was shed 
in front of the old State House. A monument to the 
civilians who were victims in this massacre stands near 
the Mall, on Boston Common, facing Tremont Street. 
After " the excursion of the king's troops to Lexington 
and Concord," and the resistance of the patriots, who 
claimed " the right to pass unmolested along the king's 
highwav," came the British victory at Ikmkcr Hill. The 
red-coats embarked near the old Providence depot. 
About where the statue of Leif Ericson stands lay some 



A Typical A?ncruaii Comiiioinvcall/i. 



29 



of the Briti^li .sliips-ol-war, one of them commanded by 
Captain Linzee ; and much of what is now the handsom- 
est part of Boston was tlien mud and ooze, under tidal 
water. Colonel Prescott led 
his miHlia well, and held them 
against the artillery and infantr\- 
fire of the regulars till his ])ow- 
dcr was all gone. Then English 
pluck snatched X'ictory out of 
the jaws of defeat, and over the 
redoubt the Union Jack waved 
the same day. Ne\ertheless, 
the defeat was so glorious that 
Americans have, on the lost 
field, soon regained, erected a 
granite obelisk, a statue of 
Prescott, and inscrib^'d bronze 
tablets commemorating the raidc 
and file. In the hall of the 
IMassachusetts Historical Soci- 
ety the swords of Linzee and 
Prescott, whose grandchildren were joined in marriage, 
are crossed in an entwining wreath. .Along the road 
from Boston to Lexington memorial stones mark the 
historic spots reddened by patriot blood. 




]!i:.\ki:r hill monumknt, 



30 Massaclmsetts 



The old elm in Cambridge, near the Harvard Univer- 
sity grounds, under which Washington took command 
of the Continental army, still stands. Dorchester Heights 
being fortified, and the city and harbor commanded, the 
city was evacuated on Saint Patrick's Day. Both the 
Saint and the good riddance are celebrated on March 17, 
under the form of " Evacuation Day." 

Bunker Hill dictated the tactics of the war. The 
British, who had not been under fire from 1762 to 1775, 
got such a taste of the power of the Massachusetts rifle 
that they were never known from that time forth to 
attack by assault Americans who were behind intrench- 
ments ; they relegated this unpopular work entirely to 
Hessians. In the Revolution Massachusetts furnished 
probably half of the men for the Continental army, 
and possibly three-fourths of the American force upon 
the ocean. On the scroll of fame the names of the sons 
of Mars and of Massachusetts are sown thickly like 
stars in the heavens. Standish, Church, Williams, Ward, 
Warren, Gridley, Knox, Lincoln, Putnam, Eaton, Hill, 
Hooker, Lander, and a host of minor lights are among 
those whose valor and abilities are gratefully remembered 
in the wars of the Colony, the State, and the Nation. In 
the war for the Union, besides contracting a debt of over 



A Typical American Comfnomvcalth. 31 

fifty millions, Massachusetts sent nearly 160,000 men into 
the armies of the Republic. 

In the makini;- of constitutions the old Bay State has 
been fruitful. The hrst was drawn up in the cabin of the 
" Mavtlower." Besides patents and charters there have 
always been the town meeting and the General Court, — 
that is, local and state legislatures, each governed by 
written rules. When Massachusetts separated from the 
mother country, — the last General Court under royal 
authoritv dissolving on the day of the battle of Bunker 
Hill, — the Provincial Congress, which had met Octo- 
ber 5, 1774, and Fel)ruary i, 1775, assumed both the 
legislative and executix'c powers. The first constitution 
submitted to the people by this Congress was rejected 
by popular vote March 4th. The constitution, drawn \\\) 
mainly by John Adams, was accepted by the ]3opular 
vote in 1780. It declared the Commonwealth to be a 
free, sovereign, and independent State. After Shay's 
Rebellion no great civil trouble was experienced, and 
the wheels of the political machinery have moved 
smoothly unto this day. The boundaries of Massachu- 
setts have been settled after negotiation with every one 
of the five States adjoining. The title to Maine v^as 
acquired in 171 7, and relinquished in 1820. In juris- 



3 2 Massac h tisetts 



prudence and statesmanship the long roll of names 
includes those of Sewall, Story, Parsons, Shaw, Otis, 
Ames, Samuel, John, and John Ouincy Adams, Quincy, 
Webster, Choate, Everett, and Sumner. 

Of her governors under the constitution, the first was 
John Hancock, also President of the Continental Con- 
gress. He served from 1780 to 17S5, and his mansion, 
— a superb specimen of colonial architecture, — stood 
on Beacon Hill, fronting Boston Common. It is this 
typical Massacluisetts house which has been chosen for 
reproduction at the Columbian Exposition. His impos- 
ing sign-manual, as bold as though made by a crowbar, 
yet as artistic as a writing-master would desire, is, of 
all the signatures to the Declaration of Independence, 
most easily read at a distance. After Hancock came 
Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, Sumner, Gill, Gore, Gerry, 
Strong, Everett, Washburn, the great war governor John 
A. Andrew, and others. 

From the first cargo of fish, beaver, and sassafras 
sent home to pay the Pilgrims' debts, and the first 
bargain made at home with wampum, Massachusetts 
has had a steadily developing commercial history. In 
finance, commerce, banks, savings-banks, insurance, the 
loaning of money and investments made for the building 
up of the country, her record is a noble one. 



A Typical American Co>nmo7iweallh. 



In her industrial career, Massachusetts was first agri- 
cultural, then na\al, then manufacturing. The boot- 
shaped State leads all cithers in the manufacture of 
foot-gear. In early days the Essex County men built 
ships and sailed them, or went fishing or trading in 
summer, and made 
shoes in winter. "Han- 
nah at the window 
binding shoes " took 
her share of the light 
manual labor ; and now 
a great army of shoe- 
makers, from Pittsfield 
to Brockton, keeps half 
the people of the United 
States well shod. The 

inventive ijenius blossomed earl v. In the manufacture of 
textiles, in hardware, in notions of all sorts, the business- 
man must be constantly alert to avail himself of the latest 
improvements in machinery, else he soon falls back in 
the procession of the successful. Water-power first, then 
steam, and finally electricity, are the motors harnessed 
and driven by man. Named in the order of their im- 
portance, the cliief manufactures of the State are shoes, 




THE HOME OF LONGFELLOW. 



34 Massachusetts : 



cottons, woollens, iron, and paper. A network of rail- 
ways stretches across the State, which is almost as 
famous for its good roads and sign-posts as for its two 
and a half millions of apple-trees. The making of 
electrical equipment is a new and thriving industry. A 
notable chapter in this progress of power and the mas- 
tery of Nature's material and forces has been written 
by Massachusetts men, among whom we may name 
Rumford, Scholfield, Elias Howe, Samuel Williston, and 
scores of living inventors, who have almost niade wood, 
stone, metal, and fibre think as well as toil for man. 
At first from the sea, and then from the mills of the 
Merrimack valley, came the wealth of Boston. Water, 
whether salt or fresh, has always been made to serve 
the State. The Merrimack is the father of many towns. 
Lono^fellow has Qrlorified honest toil, and Whittier suns^ 
the songs of labor. 

Yet, brilliant and solid as is her reputation in things 
material, this Commonwealth has other glories in which 
she excels. Her mark on the nation has been deepest 
in intellectual and moral achievements. She has led in 
religion, reform, education, and literature. The church- 
spire and the school-house are the pre-eminent features 
in her landscapes. The free common school system 



A Typical .li/icncan Couimonwealth. 



35 




sustained by public taxation is almost coterminous with 
her history; while in its de\-elopment, INIassachusetts has 
ever stood foremost among the Slates in the national 
commonwealth. Besides her graded, high, normal, agri- 
cultural, scientific, technological, professional, and special 
schools, her colleges 
and universities, for 
both sexes and all 
classes, her women's 
colleges, — W'ellesley, 
Smith, Mount 1 lol- 
yoke, — women's clubs 
and open avenues for 
woman's work and 
advancement are no- 
table. The first news- 
paper, the first "print- 

ery," the first translation and publication of the Bible 
within the limits of the United States, besides other 
initiatives of lesser note, were at Cambridge or Boston. 
The Almanac, the Freeman's Oath, the Bay Psalm Book, 
Eliot's Indian Bible, and the New England Primer, were 
among the incunabula. P'rom the library brought ox'er 
by Elder Brewster to Plymouth, to the imposing Bo>ton 




THE niRTHPI.ACE OF WHirilFR. 



36 Massachusetts 



Free Public Library on Copley Square, the people have 
kept their minds well nourished with solid reading. In 
the number of her public libraries, "free to all," the Bay 
State leads the world. American literature be^an at 
Plymouth, was developed in the coast region, and from 
thence as well as from the Berkshire Hill country has 
received world-wide recognition. In historiography, Brad- 
ford, Winthrop, Hutchinson, Sparks," Palfrey, Prescott, 
Motley, Bancroft, and Parkman ; in philosophy, William 
Pynchon, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, \V. E. 
Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Theodore Parker; 
in poetry, R. H. Dana, Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, and 
Holmes ; in oratory, Winthrop, Phillips, Brooks ; in fic- 
tion, Hawthorne, Mrs. Stowe, J. G. Holland ; in art, 
Copley, Stuart, Allston, Hunt, Greenough, Story, and 
Ball, — with a host of lesser or living names, — adorn 
the long roll of Massachusetts. 

Since the elimination of negro slavery from our na- 
tional life, and the close of the War for the Union, the 
population of Massachusetts has doubled, and her wealth 
increased manifold. In Faneuil Hall, the old Cradle 
of Liberty, the Robert E. Lee Camp and the John A. 
Andrew Post have dined together in fraternal reunion, 
and on Bunker Hill, as one band, the Blue and the Gray 



A Typical Atncrican Coiiniiouucallh. 



al 



joined in fresh consecration of loyalty to our common 
country. 

In this barest outline of the history of ^Massachusetts, 
we have but pointed out the [K-imal elements; it is for 




S'lATF. UOUSK 



the visitor to the Columl)ian Exposition to study the 
flower and fruit. Refrainino; from quotation of the 
Census Report of 1S90. and inviting the sons of Massa- 



38 Massachusetts. 



chusetts from home and from afar, in America or from 
the ends of the earth, to inspect her material, hterary, 
and educational exhibits, we ask again from them in 
behalf of the old Bay State the ancestral prayer, — 

oBoti ^abc tl)c arommon\jDcaltl3» 



